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BIBLE SIDELIGHTS 

FROM 

SHAKSPEARE 



Copyright 1913 
By William Burgess 




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BIBLE SIDELIGHTS 

from 

SHAKSPEARE 



Twenty Lay Homilies from 
Parallel Texts of THE BIBLE 
and of SHAKSPEARE'S WORKS 




By WILLIAM BURGESS 

Author of 
"The Bible in Shakspeare" "The Religion of Ruskin," etc. 






To My Daughter 

MRS. EMMA F. BYERS 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 



who has consecrated 
her life to service in 
the Young Women's 
Christian Association 



'UA358040 




U f^o<^L-6^;flaf 



Contents 



Page 

1. The Price of Life 7 

2. The Price of Peace 9 

3. The Price of Pardon 12 

4. The Price of Penitence 16 

5. The Price of Guilt 19 

6. The Price of Prodigality 21 

7. Prayer as an Asset 28 

8. Babes and Sucklings 31 

9. Men, Birds, and Tramps 34 

10. Doing Good to the Enemy 38 

11. Justice and Judgment 41 

12. Money and Character 45 

13. The Way of the Fool 48 

14. The Way of Wisdom 50 

15. The Way of the Traitor 53 

16. The Way of Darkness 57 

17. The Way that Is Narrow 61 

18. The Law of Liberty 64 

19. The Value of Time 68 

20. Calvary — Golgotha 70 



Preface 



THE manifest value of the great 
thoughts of our poets as side- 
lights to the central truths of 
the Bible is the author's apology 
(if any such be needed) for coupling 
texts from Scripture with passages 
from Shakspeare. 

In the twenty little homilies con- 
tained in these pages there is no 
attempt to offer any system of theo- 
logical thought. They are sugges- 
tions only, which may lead some 
readers to deeper research for the 
infinite truth. They serve, also, to 
show that the greatest of the world's 
dramatists drew "living water" from 
exhaustless wells and that he gath- 
ered his most precious pearls from 
the deepest depths. 



I. 

THE PRICE OF LIFE 

"Whosoever will save his life shall lose it." — 
Luke 9:24. 

"You have too much respect upon the world, 
They lose it that do buy it with much care." 

— Merchant of Venice, 1:1. 

This is one of many Scripture paradoxes. 
Startling as it sounds, it is true that he 
whose chief thought is to save himself loses 
himself. 

In 'The Merchant of Venice'' Shaks- 
peare shows us a man whose fortune in- 
volves the care that kills. 'They lose it 
that do buy it with much care.'' 

The soldier who is bent on saving himself 
is lost. As a soldier, he is a dead failure, 
which is equivalent to saying that he loses 
his life. Only he who gives life, when the 
call comes, is a soldier. 

Once, at least, the American Nation gave 
itself to save itself. And the Nation was 
saved. Its roots struck down deeper and it 
stood erect like a great oak amidst sacrifice 



THE PRICE OF LIFE 

and suffering. To save the Union the Na- 
tion dared to die, and with the union came 
freedom. 

Other issues press upon us. If Capital is 
bent on saving itself without regard to La- 
bor, it must lose itself. Capital is the child of 
Labor, and the child cannot live without the 
nourishment which only Labor can give. If, 
on the other hand. Labor refuses to give 
itself, not even Union can save it. A per- 
sistent strike which, in effect, locks up the 
supplies of nature, destroys the very life of 
Labor. 

The only thing that can redeem the world 
is sacrifice. Society is saved by men and 
women who suffer loss and life. There has 
never been reform or progress that was not 
the price of life. Life — for the more abun- 
dant life. 

The way to greatness is not traveled on 
stilts. Sacrifice is seed sowing. Just as the 
golden grain never bends before the autumn 
breeze until long after the seed has been 
sown, so he who would gather sheaves must 
first deposit his seed. 



11. 

THE PRICE OF PEACE 

"Blessed are the peacemakers." — Matt. 5 :9. 

"Blessed are the peacemakers on earth." — 
II. Henry 6, 2:1. 

The text is the same in the Bible, and in 
Shakspeare. The truth expressed in this 
dual text is the same in all places, in all ages. 

No higher benediction can be given to any 
man than the blessedness of a peacemaker. 
He who brings harmony from discord, or 
peace from conflict is a world's benefactor. 

The world is big enough, and rich enough 
for all. All there is of mountain and mine, 
of plain and prairie, of river and rill, of 
forest and field, is God's gift to man — free 
and untaxed. Limitations, divisions, com- 
petitions, and taxes are human devices. If 
all men were honest there would be a com- 
mon interest in all. All the world would be 
at peace. 

But the exercise of the royal law is not 
everywhere observed. There are grabbers, 
grafters, and thieves everywhere. Might 



THE PRICE OF PEACE 

often rules instead of right. Hence discon- 
tent and war and the need for the peace- 
maker. There can be no peace without a 
price! Shakspeare makes one say in Much 
Ado: 

"If he fear God he must necessarily keep the 
peace; if he break the peace he ought to enter a 
quarrel with a Christian-like fear." 

War and peace are as opposite as the poles, 
yet force is sometimes necessary to peace. 

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth ; 
I came not to send peace but a sword." * * "Blessed 
are the peacemakers;" "Peace I give unto you." 

"The peace of., heaven is theirs that lift their 
swords in just and charitable war." 

Abraham Lincoln was a peacemaker and 
yet he, more than any other one man, was 
responsible for the war ; the most costly, per- 
haps, in history. The price paid, in treasure 
and blood, is beyond compute, but the gain is 
immeasurable and unending. It has given 
us a United and Free Nation, and all the 
world is gainer. 

The cost of peace does not appraise its 
value. Its price, like that of liberty, is "eter- 
nal vigilance." 

10 



THE PRICE OF PEACE 

There can be no peace without honor. 
PoHtics must be purged and cities must be 
wrested from the control of thieves in 
office: 

"Thieves for their robbery have authority 
When Judges steal themselves." 

The Peacemaker has not an easy task. He 
who would bring peace to man, or home, 
or nation, must be prepared for martyrdom. 
Intercession means sacrifice. 

In common life there is need of the Peace- 
maker. He who redeems a brother, — who 
adjusts a family grievance, or brings sun- 
shine to a single soul is a contributor to the 
world's peace. Blessed Is He! 



sa^ 



11 



III. 

THE PRICE OF PARDON 

"Forgive and ye shall be forgiven." — Luke 6:37. 

"If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heav- 
enly Father will also forgive you your trespasses." 
—Matthew 6:14. 

"I as free forgive you as I would be forgiven." 
—Henry 8, 2:1. 

"I pardon him as God shall pardon me." — Rich- 
ard 2, 5:3. 

Shakspeare saw that forgiveness is fun- 
damental. "A Christian spirit" and "a for- 
giving spirit'' are synonymous terms. When 
this spirit prevails in the administration of 
law and in the adjustment of the common 
affairs of society, the world will be nearer 
heaven by several marches. 

In giving the silver candlesticks to Jean 
Valjean, the good Bishop Bienvenu said: 
"Forget not, never forget that you have 
promised to use this silver to become an 
honest man."* This injunction would have 
been worthless without the forgiveness 
which attended it. 



^Les Miserables. 

12 



THE PRICE OF PARDON 

"Try what forgiveness will do," was the 
advice given to a commanding officer who 
was in despair over an incorrigible soldier. 
When the offender was called in, instead of 
the court-martial sentence he looked for, he 
was broken down by words of pardon, and 
from that hour he became a new man and a 
good soldier. 

If, in social life, men forgave as they 
would be forgiven, how much of enmity 
would the world be saved. In polite society 
we accept apologies, but we rarely forgive. 
Rashly we vow, "Fll never speak to him 
again," and stubbornly we keep the wicked 
vow. Thus we often discredit and disinherit 
ourselves from the choicest things of life. 

He was one of Moretown's best citizens 
who, for forty years, conducted the choir of 
its most prominent church. Some one said 
"He ought to make way for a younger man," 
and the veteran leader angrily vowed "he 
would never go into the church again." For 
ten years he walked up and down, an upright 
but an unforgiving man. He died worth 
half a million of money, but bankrupt in 
spirit. How much better he, who believing 
himself offended by a brother church-officer, 
after carrying the grudge already too long, 
went to the brother and said, "He is a fool 
who never forgives" and, when they shook 

13 



THE PRICE or PARDON 

hands, two men were made happy, and so- 
ciety, the church, and themselves, were all 
gainers. 

Forgiveness implies an offense, a debt, 
a wrong done. But not infrequently it is the 
unforgiving man who does the wrong. Dry- 
den said: "They never pardon who have 
done the wrong.'' And Herbert said : "The 
offender never pardons." But this is not 
Christian ; it is Pagan. To forgive is Divine. 

Forgiveness is a cure for envy and re- 
venge. Shakspeare gives us a pathetic 
illustration. In the play of Henry VIH, the 
unpleasant task of conducting Buckingham 
to execution is allotted to Sir Thomas 
Lowell, who says: — 

"I do beseech your grace for charity. 

If ever any malice in your heart 

Were hid against me, now to forgive me frankly." 

To which Buckingham answers: — 

"I as free forgive you 
As I would be forgiven; I forgive all; 
There cannot be those numberless offenses 
'Gainst me that I cannot take peace with; 
No black envy shall make my grave." 

Forgiveness is a sign-manual of human 
greatness.* 

*See reference to President McKinley, page 40. 

14 



THE PRICE OF PARDON 

Professor Huxley must have been suffer- 
ing a fit of the blues when he said: "I pro- 
test that if some great Power would agree 
to make me always think what is true and 
do what is right, on condition of being 
turned into a sort of clock and wound up 
every morning, I should instantly close with 
the offer." 

What a miserable bargain that would be ! 
Worse than Esau's sale of his birthright. 
To become a machine instead of a free moral 
agent; to barter my power of choice for a 
clock-spring that cannot reason with God 
or man! No! no! Let us not be deprived 
of the power to earn a title-deed to the for- 
giveness of God and man. 



15 



IV. 
THE PRICE OF PENITENCE 

"Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be 
white as snow." — Isaiah 1 :18. 

"What if this curs'd hand 
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood? 
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens, 
To wash it white as snow ?" — Hamlet 3 :3. 

Shakspeare is true to the scriptural doc- 
trine of repentance as he is to its law of 
judgment. Forgiveness cannot be appro- 
priated without penitence. Isaiah announces 
no unconditional pardon. The scarlet sin 
may be washed away, but it is preceded by 
the appeal : "Wash you, make you clean, put 
away the evil of your doings; cease to do 
evil, learn to do well." 

The Poet employs the Prophet's figure. 
The conscience of the King preaches repent- 
ance and restitution, as conditions of for- 
giveness and peace. Claudius is king by the 
sacrifice of "brother's blood." He has an in- 
ward conflict which leads him to consider 
repentance. He tries to strike a balance in 
his own favor by proposing to do right in 
the future, and yet retain the gains of his 
sins. 

16 



THE PRICE or PENITENCE 

"But, O, what form of prayer 
Can serve my turn? 

Forgive me my foul murder ! 
That cannot be; since I am still possess'd 
Of those effects for which I did the murder, a^ 

My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen." 

This is the whole problem of repentance: 
How can Claudius find forgiveness while he 
retains the throne and lives, as the husband 
of the murdered brother's wife? He knows 
that he must yield these and surrender him- 
self as a murderer. But that means death. 
The price is greater than he has the courage 
to pay. Yet, perhaps! Might he not com- 
promise by some pious act? Can he not 
pray the offense away ? — 

"What if this cursed hand 
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood — 
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens, 
To wash it white as snow ?" 

But he rises from his prayerless prayer, 
conscious that no word of it is heard in 
heaven. 

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. 
Words without thoughts never to heaven go!" 

Although he has cheated justice, he can- 
not defeat the judgments of heaven. 

17 



THE PRICE OP PENITENCE 

"In the corrupted currents of this world 
Offense's gilded hand may shove by justice, 
Buys out the law: * * ^ * 

But 'tis not so above. 
There is no shuffling; there the action lies 
In his true nature; and we ourselves compell'd, 
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
To give in evidence." — Hamlet, 3 :3. 

To be forgiven a sin is greater than to be 
pardoned a crime ; he who would know such 
forgiveness must seek it and must forsake 
the sin and renounce all its gains. 

The price of penitence is that "the wicked 
forsake his way and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts." If hands or heart engage in any 
compliances with sin, there are no waters, 
in all this world of many waters, that can 
wash you clean. 

"Hear the word of the Lord : to what purpose is 
the multitude of your sacrifices? When ye make 
many prayers I will not hear; your hands are full 
of blood. Wash you, make you clean ; put away the 
evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease 
to do evil. Learn to do well; seek judgment, re- 
lieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for 
the widow." 



18 




Lady Macbeth: 

"What, will these hands ne'er be clean? — All the 
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little 
hand. Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! 



Doctor : 

"Infected minds 

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. 
More needs she the divine than the physician, 
God, God, forgive us all." — Macbeth 5:1. 



V. 

THE PRICE OF GUILT 

"Pilate took water and washed his hands before 
the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood 
of this just person." — Matthew 27:24. 

"With Pilate wash your hands 
Shewing an outward pity : Yet you Pilates 
Have here delivered me to my sour cross ; 
And water cannot wash away your sins." 

—Richard 11. 4:1. 

"How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands 
Of this most grievous murder." — Richard HI. 1 :4. 

But did Pilate's washing before the multi- 
tude free him of the guilt of blood? Did the 
mock sympathy of conspirators make them 
loyal to King Richard? Did the sham re- 
grets of Clarence's murderer prove him less 
guilty? 

Back of Pilate's public act stands the 
dreadful deed of official consent to the death 
of Jesus. It was an act of criminal weak- 
ness, not of intent. Pilate could ''find no 
fault in Him" and would have set Him free 
but that he feared the Jews. The tenure of 

19 



THE PRICE OF GUILT 

his office was insecure and, like many a mod- 
ern politician, he could not stand an "appeal 
to Caesar." Judgment is perverted by the 
weakness of the judge and the effect is the 
same as if he were criminally unjust. To 
judge righteously demands courage, and 
righteousness is the soul of justice. Expe- 
diency and fear have no place on the judg- 
ment seat. 

Joseph Parker said: 'Tilate had not 
learned the majesty of the word 'ought.' " 
He was destitute of strong conviction and 
was consequently weak in the presence of a 
determined effort. 

To do evil and then apologize for it is not 
innocence; nor is it justification. No one 
can escape responsibility by washing the 
hands, or deploring evil. 

Lady Macbeth walks in her sleep with 
troubled conscience. Her oft-repeated 
sophistries are rehearsed in her dreams. She 
imagines herself talking to her husband: 

"Wash your hands ; look not so pale. I tell you 
yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out 
the grave!" 

But the spirit of the murdered Banquo 
will not "down" before the guilty consciences 
of the King and Queen. 



20 



VI. 

THE PRICE OF PRODIGALITY 

"Father, give me the portion of goods that fal- 
leth to me. And he took his journey into a far 
country, and there wasted his substance with riotous 
living," etc.— Luke 15:11-32. 

"Wherefore do ye spend money for that which 
is not bread? and your labor for that which satis- 
fieth not?"— Isaiah 55:2. 

"The story of the prodigal." — II. Henry 4:2,1. 
Merry Wives 4:5. 

"I have received my proportion like the prodig- 
ious son." — Two Gentlemen. 2:3. 

"Tattered prodigals, lately come from swine- 
keeping." — I. Henry 4, 4:2. 

"Shall I keep hogs and eat husks with them? 
What prodigal portion have I spent that I should 
stand to such penury." — As You Like It. 1 :1. 

"The story of the prodigal/' as Shaks- 
peare twice calls it, is a moving picture — a 
kaleidoscope of the home-circle; portraying, 
in graphic lines, scenes of pleasure and pain, 
plenty and poverty, feasting and famine, 
"home sweet home." 

21 



THE PRICE OF PRODIGALITY 

It is not singular that Shakspeare made 
frequent reference to this all-time story, for, 
of all the parables of Jesus, this is the most 
realistic. It is an all-world picture, true to 
life in all ages. It is the model of literary 
excellence and condensation. In less than 
five hundred words, the greatest dramatic 
story of family life is told. As one reads it, 
the various scenes open to our view, answer- 
ing human experience and setting forth the 
divinity of love, in seeking the lost, and re- 
storing them to the inheritance and wealth 
of sonship. 

In these scenes, therefore, we have a sug- 
gestion of the many pictorial representa- 
tions of this divinely-human and humanly- 
divine drama. 

Scene i. The home of luxury, replete 
with rich furnishings, under the care of 
" many hired servants." The master of the 
house, in serious conference with his 
younger son — a young man, handsome, 
hopeful, winning in his ways, and confident 
of success as he pleads with his generous, 
but too-indulgent, father. 

Scene 2. The family coach is at the door 
of the home mansion. Imagination pictures 
mother and sister in tears ; in the background 
the elder brother, training the vines. The 
father, who is in the foreground, turns away 

22 



THE PRICE OF PRODIGALITY 

and brushes back a tear, as the self-con- 
scious, younger son springs into the carriage 
and gaily bids them adieu. 

Scene 3. Ball-room in a foreign city. 
Everything denotes prodigality; the gilded 
furnishings, the costly paintings of bacca- 
nalian and voluptuous subjects, the gorgeous 
candelabra and the showily dressed attend- 
ants. It is a scene of revelry and riotous 
pleasure. Gaily dressed men and women 
are paying special homage to a young man, 
distinguished among them by his foreign 
features and manners. He is the younger 
of the two sons. 

Scene 4. From the roof of the home- 
mansion the patriarchal father, growing 
gray and sad, is bending his look towards 
the eastern horizon. Everything around him 
is peaceful and prosperous, but he sees — 
not his estates with their abundance, nor his 
cattle and fields of waving corn; he is look- 
ing out towards the deserted highway, his 
heart searches for one who was — but is not. 

Scene 5. A young Hebrew of delicate 
form and face, with hands unused to rough 
tasks. He is painfully busy at the swine- 
herd of a hog-merchant and he shrinks with 
disgust from the ''unclean" things. But 
these are famine-times, and not a husk may 
be wasted, or stolen. We pity him as we 

23 



THE PRICE OF PRODIGALITY 

observe his hungry, famished features, and 
we can hear him in his soHloquy : 

"How many hired servants of my father's have 
bread enough and to spare and I perish with hun- 
ger. 

And see! Another expression is on his 
face; with a smile of hope, he says: 

"I will arise and go to my father, and I will say 
unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and 
before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy 
son ; make me as one of thy hired servants." 

Scene 6. The home-mansion lies a short 
distance in the prospective. Two figures on 
the road are in strange contrast. The patri- 
archal owner of the estates has fallen upon 
the face and form of a ragged, unkept, half- 
starved tramp. It is the prodigal son, come 
back to fatherland and home. As the old 
man kisses the unwashed cheeks of the wan- 
derer, one thinks of the words of the Psalm- 
ist, "Like as a father pitieth his children, 
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." 

Such boundless pity ! Not the pity of cold 
charity, or of contempt, but the pity of sym- 
pathy and the welcome of love and restora- 
tion: "For this my son was dead and is 
alive again.'' 

Scene 7. It is a festive night at the home- 



THE PRICE OF PRODIGALITY 

mansion. Every window in the house is 
Hghted; music comes from open windows 
and doors. In the prime of young manhood, 
self-conscious and proud, stands the elder 
son, in controversy with his father. Hear 
him, as he cries : 

"Lo! these many years do I serve thee, neither 
transgressed I at any time thy commandment; and 
yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make 
merry with my friends; but as soon as this thy 
son was come, which hath devoured thy living with 
harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." 

For a moment we are in accord with this 
protest. But the language is harsh, critical, 
severe. It ignores responsibility. The elder 
son does not say, "as soon as this my brother 
was come, but "thy son." 



''He wasted his substance, and he began to 
be in want," 

Waste and want are related as cause and 
effect. Any man can waste without effort; 
it is easy as a toboggan slide, the descent is 
rapid and sensational — and there is no profit 
in it. 

The youth who has not learned to earn is 
master in the art of spending; it comes 
naturally to one who has nothing but money. 

25 



THE PRICE OF PRODIGALITY 

r 

How soon he spends all he has. And there 
follows a famine. It is always so, logically 
and inevitably so. Men who do nothing but 
spend are always bringing famine. He who 
consumes and does not produce is a famine- 
maker. 

But the price of prodigal waste is more 
than want and famine. It includes also the 
loss of fatherhood, mother-love, sister-ten- 
derness, brother's respect, home and heri- 
tage. 



''He went and joined himself to a citizen." 

It was nothing to this citizen that he was 
the son of a rich man, a Hebrew, a descend- 
ant of Abraham and Moses. The young 
man was a mere tramp, an untrained youth, 
without money, without friends, and he was 
starving. What a price to pay for a season 
of license! 

But what boundless love redeems a re- 
pentant prodigal ! The grandest thing in the 
economy of the Kingdom of God is the pro- 
vision for repentance and its consequent for- 
giveness. The penitent soul will be glad to 
come back as a servant, but the Father will 
meet him and restore him as a son. This is 
the wonder of love. 

86 



THE PRICE OF PRODIGALITY 

How suddenly and abruptly the drama 
closes! We wonder at what is left unwrit- 
ten. 

What becomes of the elder brother? We 
admire that young man's sturdy character. 
But he is just, not generous; honest, but 
not merciful; he would rather see a brother 
die than forgive a brother's fault. Does he 
yield to the father's pleading? 

Does that Father's speech of sweet reas- 
oning and eloquent persuasiveness which 
recognizes the elder son's claim and heritage, 
bring love and forgiveness? We wish it 
might! But it is a world's question — "Does 
my brother forgive ?" 

''Son, thou art ever with me and all that 
I have is thine. It was meet that we should 
make merry and he glad for this thy brother 
was dead and is alive again." 



27 



VII. 

PRAYER AS AN ASSET 

"Pray for them that despitefully use you." — 
Matthew 5:44. 

"Pray for them that have done scath to us." — 
Richard 3, 1 :3. 

Men do not generally go to Shakspeare 
for religious thought. They think that it is 
a subject outside the realm of the drama. 
Yet, if asked for the best expression of what 
prayer is, outside of the Bible, we may quote 
this from Hamlet: 

"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below 
Words without thoughts never to Heaven go." 3 :3. 

Or, if the question were, why are prayers 
not answered ? We might give this from an- 
other play: 

"We, ignorant of ourselves, 
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers 
Deny us for our good; so find we profit 
By losing of our prayers." — Anthony and Cleo. 2:1. 



28 



PRAYER AS AN ASSET 

As to the value of prayer we have this : 

*'Not with fond shekels of tested gold, 
Or stones, whose rates are either rich or poor 
As fancy values them; but with true prayers 
That shall be up at heaven and enter there." 

— Measure for Measure. 2 :2. 

^' There are no less than thirty-two passages'/ 
pn prayer, in nineteen different plays of ^ 
Bhakspeare. 

Material philosophy takes issue with 
prayer as an available asset. And it must 
be admitted that it is not a subject to be 
established by the rules of logic. We can- 
not prove to the prayerless man that prayer 
is of value. The reason for this is not far 
to seek. Men who deny the spiritual can- 
not enter into its mysteries. It is as impos- 
sible to prove to a skeptic that prayer is 
vital, as it would be to prove that color is 
real to a blind man who disputes it. There 
is no common ground for discussion between 
the two parties; one of us stands upon 
ground, the very existence of which is un- 
known, and denied by the other. 

But the evidence of prayer-value is just as 
clear as the evidence of color. The man of 
sight knows color, although he may know 
nothing of the laws that govern it. The man 
of God knows prayer, although he may not 
know why. 

29 



PRAYER AS AN ASSET 

t 
Victor Hugo said: "One can no more 
pray too much than love too much." The 
human soul is instinct with prayer, in the 
moment of danger, in the hour of supreme 
interest, in the extremes of helplessness. 
Without prayer there would be no Christian 
world. All great crises in Christian history, 
all its great discoveries and all its movements 
of progress and law have been sealed by 
prayer, and every great disaster is attended 
with instinctive prayer, compelling prayer 
even of the prayerless. 

Shakspeare gives utterance to the human 
sense of need when he makes one cry in his 
extremity : 

"Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice. 
And lift my soul to heaven." 

The scriptural injunction to prayer is 
never so lofty as when it calls us to pray for 
our enemies : for prayer involves an expres- 
sion of our whole selves for the object in 
view. He who prays for another would, if 
he could, do for that other what he asks God 
to do. No prayer can reach heaven which 
does not come from the heart of the man 
who prays, carrying with it conviction, de- 
sire, purpose, love, all of which means that 
he will answer his own prayer if he can. 

Then — it is an available asset. 

30 



VIII. 

BABES AND SUCKLINGS 

"God hath chosen the weak things of the world 
to confound the things which are mighty." — I. Cor. 
1:27. Matthew 11:25. 

"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast 
thou ordained strength." — Psalms 8:2. 

"He that of the greatest works is finisher 
Oft does them by the weakest minister 
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown." 

All's Well. 2:1. 

One of the many paradoxes of the Scrip- 
tures is that strength comes of weakness. 
"When I am weak, then am I strong.'' 

She was the child of a peasant laborer, 
who spent her years in "spinning and sew- 
ing by her mother's side, tender to the poor 
and the sick, fond of the church and the 
church bells." At the age of eighteen, she 
roused an army to enthusiasm and turned 
the fortunes of war in favor of her beloved 
France. The "mighty" were confounded. 
The King and his ministers were "wholly 
under the spell of terror which the besieg- 

81 



BABES AND SUCKLINGS 

ers had cast over France."* But the spell 
was broken by this girl who led ten thou- 
sand men to battle and to victory. Greater, 
even than her victory against the invading 
forces, was the personal influence of Joan 
of Arc over the men of the army ; "they left 
off their oaths and foul living at her word, 
and gathered at the altars on their march."* 

One such fact from history furnishes a 
better commentary than a volume of philos- 
ophy and yet this is but one of many. We 
have read of young Joseph in a royal court ; 
of Esther overthrowing the conspiracy of 
the powerful Haman; of young David 
against a boasting giant and a jealous king; 
of Daniel, in his simplicity, ignoring the 
imperious orders of an eastern monarch; 
and, greater than all, of the child Jesus in 
the midst of the Rabbis. And modern his- 
tory tells of the triumphs of women whose 
weakness was stronger than men. 

The second text is confirmed by daily ex- 
perience in every social grade among men 
and women. The child-voice is the music of 
the home. The virgin innocence of child- 
hood is one of the strongest forces of moral 
protection. The very presence of "babes 
and sucklings" is often the surest guardian 
of peace and safety. The plea of the young 



•Green's History of England. 



BABES AND SUCKLINGS 

child is ever the most powerful in the midst 
of civil strife; no voice cries so loudly, or 
pleads so eloquently for peace. 

The child is the hope of the world. And 
this hope is not appraised by the cost of its 
cradle. Moses, from a cradle of rushes 
daubed with pitch, was the pledg^e of a na- 
tion's freedom, and of laws upon which the 
greatest governments of the world have been 
built. 

In the midst of a fire which has already 
enveloped the farm-house in flames, the 
mother-cry is for the baby-boy John. A 
curly head appears at the chamber window 
and a ladder of human bodies quickly pro- 
vides a way to deliver John Wesley — the 
founder of Methodism. 

The cradle of Abraham Lincoln was as 
humble as that of Moses, and we know that 
the majesty of the man and the greatness 
of the President who led this nation to union 
and freedom did not obtain from the luxury 
of wealth or the ''things that are mighty." 

"O, Child ! O new-born denizen 

Of life's great city! 

Here at the portal thou dost stand 

And with thy little hand 

Thou openest the mysterious gate 

Into the future's undiscovered land.'* 



33 



IX. 

MEN, BIRDS, AND TRAMPS 

"Not one of them (sparrows) is forgotten be- 
fore God."— Luke 12 :6. 

"Behold the fowls of the air; * * * your 
heavenly Father feedeth them." — Matthew 6:26. 

"There's a special providence in the fall of the 
sparrow." — Hamlet 5 :2. 

"He that doth the ravens feed, Yea providently 
caters for the sparrow." — As You Like It. 2 :3. 

Whether we take the Poet's version of the 
texts or that of the Bible — from whence he 
took them — there is not a hint of any special 
providence for him who will not work. On 
the contrary, the figure used is of activity 
and industry: "Sparrows," "fowls of the 
air,'' "ravens." These all are busy workers, 
every day; from early dawn to sundown, 
seeking food to sustain them and toiling for 
their home-building. 

The Providence that cares for men, — even 
more than for the birds, because they are of 
"more value" — is the ever-working order of 
God's laws in nature, the universal bounty — 

34 



MEN, BIRDS, AND TRAMPS 

seed-time and harvest — the sum-total of 
life's many forces, bringing forth corn and 
fruit, bread and water, for every child of 
man. 

Luke gives a yet finer touch to this picture 
of Providence; God's thoughtfulness — ''not 
one is forgotten." It is great and good to 
provide for all, it is greater and better to 
think of all; — working out the good of each 
and of all, even in the fall of one. Not one 
forgotten! In the vastness of the universal 
claims, in the multitude of dependants, not 
forgotten. Though a prodigal, or a rebel, 
absent but not forgotten! Remembered, 
when the festive board at home is crowned 
with good things. To be remembered is to 
be enriched. 

Providence is not bountifulness paying a 
debt, but graciousness in gifts, to whom it 
owes nothing. It is giving — not paying. The 
lazy man cries, "The world owes me a liv- 
ing." He is a liar and at heart a thief. The 
world owes no man anything. Things are 
working together for us at life's beginning. 
We inherit all that has gone before; all art, 
all science, all poetry, all history, and all 
human experience. He is a very contempt- 
ible man who, coming into possessions, never 
attempts to augment or distribute them. He 
is a perversion of Providence. Whether he 

35 



BIEN, BIRDS, AND TRAMPS 

has money or not, he is a pauper, eating that 
he does not earn. The lazy man is a dishon- 
est man, in the very core of him a vagabond. 

The world shares in the ministries of 
God's providence when it cares for those 
who cannot work. But those who will not 
work have no claim on Providence, nor on 
the world. That is a divine order. No man 
can win who won't work. They who inherit 
wealth — of money or genius — have not won. 
They may have the sense of possession — not 
the joy of winning, unless they work their 
possessions as talents in the service of hu- 
manity and God. 

"What is a man 
If his chief good and market of his time 
Be but to sleep and feed ? A beast, no more." 

—Hamlet 4:4. 

All the world and all nature call to the 
worker. To him, and to him alone, is due 
the reward of toil, and although it is true 
that men have conspired against men, it is 
also true that every worker has a reward in 
honest toil. Like the shepherd of Shaks- 
peare's poetry: "I am a true laborer, I can 
earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man 
hate, envy no man's happiness, glad of other 
men's good, content with my harm." 

But is not Providence a mystery? Surely 

36 



MEN, BIRDS, AND TRAMPS 

yes ! The Book — that wondrous Word — the 
Book of books does not make li^ht of the 
profound mystery of human sorrow. The 
Book is full of it. Job is the drama of it. 
The Psalms are attuned to it. The promises 
are given for it. And yet all God's Provi- 
dence is summed up in that one mysterious, 
golden sentence: — "The very hairs of your 
head are numbered." 



"If not a sparrow fall, unless 

The Father sees and knows it, 
Think! recks He less His form express. 

The soul His own deposit? 
If only dear to Him the strong, 

That never trip or wander. 
Where were the throng whose morning song 

Thrills His blue arches yonder?" 

— Lowell. 



37 



X. 

DOING GOOD TO THE ENEMY 

"Do good to them that hate you." — Matthew 5 :44. 

''Overcome evil with good." — Romans 12:21. 

''Cherish those hearts that hate thee." — Henry 
8 :3-2. 

"With a piece of Scripture tell them God bids us 
do good for evil." — Richard 3:1-3. 

Can I keep this law and live among men? 
Is it possible to be a self-respecting citizen 
and allow my enemy to walk over me? 

It is forgotten that the spirit of tolerance 
and forbearance is consistent with the most 
dignified attitude, which is also the surest 
security against indignities and abuses. 

The Artist's conception of Jesus is the 
loftiest and most self-protecting human 
figure in all the galleries of the world of art. 
The Roman soldier, encased in steel armor, 
and bearing weapons of war and authority, 
is a more militant and dreaded figure, but 
the Christ portrait commands incomparably 
greater respect and security. We do not 
read that Jesus was ever once assaulted by 
any man, apart from a mob. Even the law 

38 



DOING GOOD TO THE ENEMY 

officers went back to the magistrates without 
him; they could not arrest him for "never 
man spake Hke this man." And that inex- 
pressible something, possible to all men in 
greater or lesser degree, which reflects the 
spirit of good-will and gentleness is the 
surest protection to all. 

The man who is kind in spirit and concilia- 
tory in manner is safer from ordinary dan- 
ger than an armed bully. The man who 
carries firearms says : 'T will kill my enemy," 
and in flourishing his revolver, brags his 
ability to use it, endangers his own life and 
that of others. A woman or a child who is 
absolutely innocent of the use of firearms is 
safer than the man who is a marksman and 
who carries a revolver. 

We have witnessed the spectacle of two 
women and a babe, imprisoned for months, 
at the mercy of a band of lawless Turkish 
ruffians; yet passing through their hands 
unscathed and free from assault. 

Christ does not forbid an appeal to law. 
Although he never applied to it for self- 
defense, yet he respected and honored it; 
''Render unto Caesar the things which be 
Caesar's." Christ approved the law, but he 
sharply contrasted the spirit of His follow- 
ers with that of the world by setting up a 
higher standard. He said : ''Ye have heard 

39 



DOING GOOD TO THE ENEMY 

that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say 
unto you. Love your enemies, bless them that 
curse you, do good to them that hate you/' 

This is the imperial standard. To "do 
good to them that hate" us is so lofty an act 
that it puts the divine seal upon him who 
does it. To "overcome evil with ^ood" is the 
only thing that can suppress evil. To meet 
evil with evil is to double its volume and in- 
crease its force. 

It is in supreme moments that the real 
test of character appears. When President 
McKinley was struck to death his first 
thought was of pity and kindness towards 
his assassin. Forgetting his own agony, he 
exclaimed: "Let no one hurt him." That 
was the crowning utterance of McKinley's 
life. It struck a note so high that no angel 
ever reached higher. Its power was instantly 
felt ; angry men unfolded their clenched fists 
and turned with mute admiration towards 
the man who, in a moment of supreme trial, 
was first considerate for his murderer. It 
resounded throughout the nation and its 
echoes reached the uttermost parts of the 
earth. No act of all the martyred Presi- 
dent's life has projected so great an influ- 
ence upon the world. No word he ever ut- 
tered is so valuable as an asset for time and 
immortality. 

40 



XL 
JUSTICE AND JUDGMENT 



"Let me be weighed in an even balance." — ^Job 
31:6. 

"To do justice and judgment is more acceptable 
to the Lord than sacrifice." — Prov. 21 :3. 

"Justice always whirls in equal measure." — 
Love's Labor Lost. 4:3. 

"Heaven is above all yet: there sits a judge that 
no king can corrupt." — Henry 8, 3:1. 



That "justice whirls in equal measure" 
may be claimed as a motto of Shakspeare's 
dramas. 

"Measure for Measure," as a play, ad- 
mirably works out the great principle of 
sacrificial atonement on the one hand, and 
absolute, undeviating justice, on the other. 
And this principle of justice in the moral 
government of God is recognized through- 
out all the Poet's works. It is, as the weft 
of the cloth which he weaves from his loom, 
whatever may be the pattern of the garment. 
He never fails to bring sin to judgment.* 



*It may be said that the play of Henry VIII is an exception to 
this rule, but this is easily explained. See "Uible in Shakspeare." 

41 



JUSTICE AND JUDGMENT 

The balances of justice are always equal in 
his hands. 

In fact, the vital quality, the perennial 
life and power, the ever-growing influence 
of Shakspeare, lies, not in the grandeur of 
his poetry, or in his surpassing dramatic 
skill. That which is greatest in him has 
been overlooked, or at least, only slightly 
recognized, viz. : his comprehensive view and 
presentation of the ethical order of the 
world. Although he never wrote a religious 
play, in the sense that religion is the theme, 
yet he never wrote an irreligious one, or one 
that is inconsistent with the fundamental 
laws of the Christian Religion. All his 
greater works are distinctly religious in tone 
and teaching and are in harmony with the 
commonly accepted doctrines of the Bible. 

The Poet treats sin as sin, not as an amia- 
ble weakness. He pleads for mercy as an 
attribute of God and man. He is true to the 
law of repentance and foregiveness, and 
never glozes over the faults of men, or makes 
them appear other than they are. He is 
the true dramatist who makes his char- 
acters draw their own moral portraits. 
In doing this he introduces us to lan- 
guage that is not always polite, judged 
by present-day standards. But it is only thus 
that we know his characters and we find 

42 



JUSTICE AND JUDGMENT 

them always impelled by the law that ''what- 
soever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap/' 

Falstaff does not end his life in pleasur- 
able success. Richard Third and Macbeth 
do not die on beds of down, surrounded by 
the comfort and love of friends. lago falls 
into the clutches of a terrible Nemesis. Con- 
sistently and uniformly, Shakspeare shows 
society — whether in church, or state, or fam- 
ily, to be redeemed through the sacrifice of 
good men and women, and by means of the 
overthrow of evil. 

He ''holds the mirror up to nature" and 
"looks through Nature up to Nature's God." 

The Poet makes the truth startling and 
real. 

"If these men have defeated the law, and outrun 
native punishment, though they can outstrip men, 
they have no wings to fly from God." — Henry 5, 
4:1. 

God no more deals out injustice in the 
treatment of men than He suspends the law 
of gravitation. He works by law, and the 
great dramatist is true to that thought. Our 
Criminal Courts may fail to bring to justice 
the tax-thief; our Government may be un- 
equal in the administration of law between 
the rich and the poor; human law does not 

43 



JUSTICE AND JUDGMENT 

always bring the murderer to the scaffold 
or wring restitution from the oppressor. 
But in God's government ''whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap." 

While they dwelt within the royal courts 
of Scotland, men only saw Macbeth and the 
Lady Macbeth in their seeming prosperity 
and happiness ; but the dramatist has shown 
us the working of their consciences, as, in 
the secret of their chamber, they cry out: 

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
Clean from my hand ? No ; this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
Making the green — one red." — Macbeth, 2:2. 

"What, will these hands ne'er be clean? 
Here's the smell of blood still: all the 
Perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little 
hand."— 5:1. 



44 



XII. 
MONEY AND CHARACTER 

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of 
a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom 
of God."— Matthew 19:24. 

"It is as hard to come as for a camel to thread 
through the postern of a needle's eye." — Richard 

2, 5:5. 

Shakspeare correctly interprets this strik- 
ing sentence in Matthew's Gospel. The figure 
employed is — not the eye of a sewing needle 
— but the "postern" or gate of the small en- 
trance to ancient cities known as the 
"Needle's Eye." 

The difficulty — not the impossibility — of 
the rich man entering the Kingdom is — that 
he puts his trust in his wealth. 



In human society, as in the clock, which 
tells the time of day, the swing of the pen- 
dulum is ever moving, from one extreme to 
the other, while the truth registered upon 
the face, is midway of those extremes. 

Many good men, observing the evils w^hich 
attend the greed for wealth, earnestly advo- 

45 



MONEY AND CHARACTER 

Gate the abolition of all property. Again and 
again, in the progress of Christian civiliza- 
tion, the pendulum has been swung to this 
extreme. 

"To be rich is to be a thief" was the senti- 
ment, if not the language, of Chrysostom. 
Ambrose and Augustine denounced prop- 
erty. Ambrose said: "The first man who, 
having fenced off a piece of ground, could 
think of saying, This is mine,' and found 
people simple enough to believe him, was 
the real founder of civil society. How many 
crimes, wars, murders, miseries and hor- 
rors, would have been spared to the human 
race by one who, plucking up the stakes, or 
filling in the trenches, should have called out 
to his fellows : 'Beware of listening to this 
imposter ; you are undone if you forget that 
the earth belongs to no one and that its fruits 
are for all.' " 

There are many apostles of this doctrine. 
"No saint can own his own farm," exclaimed 
a popular lecturer, who afterwards violated 
domestic virtue and public morality to ob- 
tain wealth. 

The Communism that followed Pentecost 
was attended by the lying and hypocrisy of 
Ananias and Sapphira and the speedy disaf- 
fection and pauperism of the church at Jeru- 
salem. "Mine" and "thine" are not words 
to be employed only by a robber. 

46 



MONEY AND CHARACTER 

Every animal pre-empts his home and 
every bird his nesting place. 

Jesus paid respect to property and took 
shelter in the homes of well-to-do citizens. 
Only to one man is it recorded that he said : 
''Sell all that thou hast and give it to the 
poor," and that man was not a Christian; 
he loved wealth too keenly to become a fol- 
lower of Christ. 

Moreover, Jesus recognized the fact that 
his own life was singular. He was unlike 
other men, in that he had no possessions. 
He sacrificed the most endearing rights of 
home, the pleasure of ownership, the domes- 
tic joys of wife and children. 'Toxes have 
holes,'' he said, "and birds have nests," — 
recognizing the natural order and rightness 
of these things. 

But the meaning and message of the text 
is none the less urgent. After all, posses- 
sions are not character and only character 
lives. In the final summing up, it is not 
what we have, but what we are, and what we 
give, that is the measure of our values. It 
is hard indeed for a man to concentrate his 
whole soul upon getting gold and yet to 
enter the Kingdom of God. 

It is worth while to subordinate the desire 
for things material that we may gain the 
greater and abiding value of character. 

47 



XIII. 

THE WAY OF THE FOOL 

"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but 
he that hearkeneth to counsel is wise." — Prov. 
12:15. 

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise 
man knows he is a fool." — As You Like It. 5:1. 

Shakspeare's fools are not all of a kind. 
There is the professional, or court fool, often 
called a "clown,'' who makes himself appear 
foolish for the amusement of others; he 
must be "wise enough to play the fool, and 
to do that well craves a kind of wit." But 
the fool of the text is the foolish man who 
"is right in his own eyes," who "thinks he 
is wise;" — the conceited, self-satisfied man, 
who "knows it all," the man who has noth- 
ing to arbitrate, but has all the wisdom of 
the world centered in his poor little pate. 

This conceit is manifested in various 
ways. Sometimes it is loud-mouthed, 
pompous, overbearing; the modest man has 
to sit and listen to its boastings, without 
answer, or like the pilgrim of Bunyan, "put 
his fingers in his ears and run." Again, it 
assumes an air of importance ; it speaks with 

48 



THE WAY OF THE FOOL 

a patronizing air, and is much too lofty to 
"condescend to, men of low estate/' At other 
times it assumes the air of modest superior- 
ity, as if to say, "I am the wise man, the man 
of intellect, of study, of calm scientific think- 
ing, and I am wise enough to announce that 
mankind really knows nothing." 

But why should the agnostic be counted 
wise? Wisdom does not bury its head, like 
an ostrich, in the sand and cry, "I don't 
know." Wisdom says, "I ought to know." 
It does not say, "I do not know that man has 
a soul and therefore I will live and die like 
a dog." It seeks counsel, it barkens to the 
inner voices of the spirit, and takes knowl- 
edge of all truth. 

Agnosticism must never be mistaken for 
humiHty. Humility is ready to sit at the feet 
of wisdom and learn. It is eager for light 
and cries aloud, ''Lord, how wilt thou mani- 
fest thyself unto us?" 

As Cowper says, "Wisdom is humble that 
it knows no more," and that greatest of all 
natural philosophers. Sir Isaac Newton, 
said: 

"I do not know what I may appear to the world, 
but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy 
playinjB^ on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in 
now and then finding a smoother pebble, or a pret- 
tier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of 
truth lay all undiscovered before me." 

49 



XIV. 
THE WAY OF WISDOM 

Wisdom crieth without ; she uttereth her voice in 
the streets : — Proverbs 1 :20. 

Wisdom cries out in the streets and no man re- 
gards it. — I. Henry 4, 1 :2. 

Falstaff is the embodiment of unv^isdom. 
Endowed with more than ordinary social 
advantages, and not without abiHty and tal- 
ent, he gives himself over to the gratification 
of the sensuous and the sensual. He does his 
utmost to corrupt others and his jovial, rois- 
terous nature makes him especially danger- 
ous to young men. He seeks the company 
of the young Prince Henry, whom he in- 
fluences for evil, and he tells him: 

"An old lord of the council rated me, the other 
day, in the street about you, but I marked him not ; 
and yet he talked very wisely; but I regarded him 
not; and yet he talked wisely," 

To which the prince replies : "Thou didst 
well : for wisdom crieth out in the streets and 
no man regards it." 

50 



THE WAY OF WISDOM 

Falstaff knew that the "old lord talked 
wisely" and the young prince had observed 
how wisdom is scorned. How strange that 
men should know the voice of wisdom and 
yet regard it not ! But this is true of all best 
things; they are despised and rejected. Of- 
fered "without money and without price," 
the multitude pass them by, or openly pour 
contempt upon them. This is the history of 
every great good that has ever come to man 
— it is despised — and its teachers and 
pioneers are rejected and martyred. 

In the Book of Proverbs, Wisdom is per- 
sonified and her voice is heard in the high- 
ways of the world. She is an evangelist, a 
missionary, a prophet, and a preacher. She 
stands with outstretched arms, her hands 
filled with the richest gifts towards all men. 

Jesus Christ was a street preacher; not 
exclusively so, but he taught by the wayside, 
from the fisherman's boat at the lake shore, 
in the great city, and in the village streets. 

But wisdom can do no more than give it- 
self. Yet it speaks again; "I love them 
that love me and they that seek me early 
shall find me." But it will not be forced 
upon any man. 

This is true of all treasure. The best 
things are universal things, available to those 

51 



THE WAY OF WISDOM 

who seek them. Who that does not seek 
them know the pearls of the great universal 
poets? Who that does not "search the 
Scriptures" can know them ? Who can know 
the Bible by its cover ? 

Wisdom is not like the rain that falleth 
equally upon just and unjust. She comes 
only to him who seeks her and all "her ways 
are ways of pleasantness and all her paths 
are peace." 



"There is an evil spirit whose dominion is in 
blindness and cowardice, as the dominion of the 
spirit of wisdom is in clear sight and in courage." 

— Ruskin. 



52 



XV. 

THE WAY OF THE TRAITOR 

"He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, 
the same shall betray me. * * * And forth- 
with he came to Jesus and said, 'Hail, Master!' 
and kissed him."— Matthew 26:23, 49. 

"They cry all hail! to me. So Judas did to 
Christ, but he, in twelve found truth in all but 
one."— Richard 2, 4:1. 

"So Judas kissed his Master and cried all hail!" 
—in Henry 6, 5 :7. 

"His kisses are Judas' own children." — ^As You 
Like It, 3:4. 

"Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Ju- 
das." — Richard 2, 3 :2. 

"A kissing traitor. How art thou prov'd Ju- 
das." — Love's Labor, 5 :2. 

Shakspeare perceived the force of Bible 
incidents to express thought and portray 
character. Seven times, in six different 
plays, he refers to the crime of Cain which 
marked the murderer's brow unto his death, 
and with even greater frequency he quotes 
Judas as the typical traitor. He pours con- 

53 



THE WAY OF THE TRAITOR 

tempt on his very name, repeating it with 
scorn, associating it always with deeds of 
treachery and traitor's kisses. 

Of all sins, is there one so black and das- 
tardly as that of the traitor? He who has 
been welcomed to the bosom of the family; 
who has shared the secrets of his friend; 
who ''dips with him in the dish,'' employs 
these sacred and intimate fellowships as in- 
struments of betrayal ! For such a man there 
is no place of repentance and the world offers 
him no refuge. 

Benedict Arnold was an unforgiven out- 
cast, his brilliant services, in earlier life, not 
balancing against base traitorship. Aaron 
Burr, once Vice President of the United 
States, could find no place in the land for his 
feet. He wandered in poverty in a foreign 
land, and returning to his own country died 
in obscurity. Piggott, who betrayed the se- 
crets entrusted to him by the Irish people, 
committed suicide in a foreign land. 

"If ever I were a traitor 
My name be blotted from the book of life 
And I from heaven be banished." 

—Richard 2, 1 :3. 

In all his great album of human portraits 
our Poet has drawn none so irredeemably 
black and vile as lago, the confidential at- 

54 



THE WAY OF THE TRAITOR 

tendant of Othello, the adviser of the weak 
Roderigo, the friends of Cassio;— he be- 
trays them all, and works the death of two 
of them, and also of Desdemona. He is the 
evil spirit, the devil incarnate of the tragedy. 

For Judas, the prince of traitors, there is 
no room for pity. He deliberately plotted 
the crime of crimes for a price. ''He went 
unto the chief priests and said, what will ye 
give me and I will deliver him unto you?" 

And then ''he sought opportunity to be- 
tray him in the absence of the multitude." 
That was a master stroke of the infamous 
and cowardly deed— to deliver Jesus to his 
enemies in the absence of the friendly peo- 
ple. So, for thirty pieces of silver, Judas 
sold his Master and Lord; for thirty pieces 
of silver, they bought the soul of Judas. 

What scheming and plotting and weigh- 
ing chances are involved in those two words, 
|]sought opportunity." The Psalmist says^ 
'They that lay wait for my soul take counsel 
together." Luke tells us that Judas "com- 
muned with the chief priests and captains 
how he might betray him." Think of one of 
his own disciples, weighing all the probabili- 
ties of the Master's movements with a view 
to His betrayal ! At what hour will He rise ? 
Where and when will He pray? How early 
in the morning will He be in the garden, 

55 



THE WAY OF THE TRAITOR 

that we may arrest him before the people are 
astir ? 

What a night of conflict in the heart of 
Judas! What battles with his better self! 
''Down, down, conscience ! I have made the 
contract ; they have paid me the money ; it is 
too late to withdraw ; Tm in honor bound to 
do the deed !" Thus men have ever reasoned 
of ''honor among thieves !" 

Thank God, it is not true that "every man 
has his price." There is more than enough 
of sin in us all, it is true, but there are men 
and women who cannot be bought. They 
can suffer, they can die, they can live in 
poverty and obscurity, but they cannot be- 
tray a trust. It is inspiring to think of a 
man — to know that there are men whose 
honor cannot be purchased at any price. 

There are yet left in the councils of the 
Nation and State, men who are above price. 
In the pulpit, in College and School, in Busi- 
ness, and even in Politics, there are Prophets 
who cannot be defiled — Citizens who cannot 
be purchased. These are they who save the 
Nation and the City from moral bankruptcy. 

The one redeeming feature about Judas 
was that his crime broke his heart and he 
went and hanged himself. 

The price is "thirty pieces of silver" — 
more or less — but the way of the traitor is 
hard. 

56 



XVI. 

THE WAY OF DARKNESS 

"Men loved darkness rather than light because 
their deeds were evil." — ^John 3:19. 

" * * * Wisdom sees those men, 
Blush not in actions black as night, 
Will shun no course to keep them from the light." 

— Pericles 1:1. 

Light and lust are deadly enemies. — Lucrece. 
Stanza 97. 

Darkness and sin ! The words are synony- 
mous. No one calls in question the fitness 
of the figure. Darkness is night, darkness 
is ignorance, darkness is death. 

In the great city of London, the writer 
once encountered one of those dense, black 
fogs which are not frequent, even in that 
city of fogs and smoke. A thick black pall 
lay over the whole city. The sun was not 
visible ; at mid-day it was darker than a win- 
ter's midnight, a darkness that one could 
feel. With the day-time supply of gas, the 
lights were small and dim; business was 
suspended. The few cabmen, who had the 

57 



THE WAY OF DARKNESS 

courage to face it, led their horses by one 
hand and carried a torch in the other. En- 
tering, about the noon hour an underground 
railway train, we soon emerged from the 
tunnel into the open of a suburban village 
station. The transformation was indescrib- 
able. From the deep gloom through which 
we had, step by step, to feel our way; to the 
glorious sunlight, reflecting the glittering 
hoar-frost upon every branch and leaf, like 
millions of diamonds. Never did day seem 
so bright, or light so grateful. 

But ''men love darkness rather than light." 
We cannot credit it! Men never love dark- 
ness for itself. All law avoids it, all order 
detests it, all beauty is hidden by it, all life 
shrinks from it; all civilization, all science, 
and all education, are at constant war with 
it. 

But when the text is completed its mean- 
ing is clear ; — ''because their deeds are evil/' 
"Deeds of darkness'' they are called, which 
are full of sin, and blight, and curse; deeds 
that wither, and scorch, and kill, that make 
night hideous, and bring sorrow, and pain, 
and death in their trail. 

"Light and lust are deadly enemies,'' says 
Shakspeare. This is the remedy for the 
great evils of our cities. Let there be light. 
Drive out the night-owls by pouring in the 

68 



THE WAY OF DARKNESS 

light. Let there be no congestion of a crim- 
inal class, no possible schools of vice, hidden 
under folds of darkness and obscured by 
secret passages, and unknown ways. The 
sheriff and police need no other signals for 
action, than the plots of secret passages and 
dark doings. 

''When the searching eye of heaven is hid 
Behind the globe, and lights the lower world, 
Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen." 

Richard II. 3:2, 

Here is the young man's danger signal. 
The very suggestion of a pleasure, or a profit 
that cannot face the light is a warning. A 
book that is offered under sealed cover, a 
picture that is hidden, a door that can only 
be entered by secret introduction, an even- 
ing's amusement with hints of mysterious 
pleasure; these are the ways of men who 
"blush not in actions black as night." 

Young men and women talk of "seeing 
life,'' or of having "a good time." And they 
think to find it at the dance, which begins at 
midnight and ends after the sun has risen. 
They feast on viands flavored and spiced to 
cheat the appetite, they drink to the border 
of drunkenness and often fall into its dark- 
ness. They "enjoy life" so much, that before 
they reach the years of mid-life, their di- 
ss 



THE WAY OF DARKNESS 

gestive organs are impaired, their nerves 
are shattered and unstrung, and they won- 
der what is the matter. Then follows a har- 
vest for patent medicine vendors and quack 
doctors, and the riper years of life are full 
of pain and darkness. What of the eternal 
future? Is that dark also? ''Have no fel- 
lowship with the unfruitful works of dark- 
ness." 



"Sight is an absolutely spiritual phenomenon; 
accurately, and only, to be so defined : and the 'Let 
there be light', is as much, when you understand it, 
the ordering of intelligence, as the ordering of 
vision." — Ruskin. 



XVII. 
THE WAY THAT IS NARROW 



"Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that 
leadeth unto life."— Matt. 7:14. 

"Strive to enter in at the strait gate." — Luke 
13:24. 

"How shall we escape if we neglect so great sal- 
vation." — Hebrews 2 :3. 

"I am for the house with the narrow gate." — 
All's Well, 4:5. 

"The means that Heaven yields must be em- 
braced and not neglected." — Richard II., 3:2. 



The Scripture does not mean that the way 
of life is by a contracted gate, a way — small 
and limited. The way of life is broad and 
large. The space, so to speak, is wide enough 
for all mankind. All heaven is open to all 
men. There stands no sentinel at the door 
to deny any man an entrance. Its invitations 
and welcomes are all heralded with "WHO- 
SOEVER." And God's "whosoevers" are 
like himself, gracious, infinite, all-compre- 
hensive. 

"There's a wideness in God's mercy 
Like the wideness of the sea." 

61 



THE WAY THAT IS NARROW 

Nor is the Gospel a way of obscurity like 
the ivy-covered gates of some old-world 
castles : 

"For the love of God is broader 
Than the measure of man's mind 

And the heart of the eternal 
Is most wonderfully kind." 

But the way of life is an up-grade, while 
the way of death is downward. The way up 
is by effort; the way down is easy, easier 
for the absence of effort. Energy, effort, 
purpose, are necessary to life and good. 

These conditions prevail in every king- 
dom of life. A live fish will swim against 
the tide, and only a living one can. A loco- 
motive engine needs no steam to run the 
down grade; let go the brakes and it will 
quickly attain velocity, and the terminus is — 
death. But it requires power to make the 
way up and the terminus is — life. 

Loss and weakness are related to neglect, 
as cause and effect. Bankruptcy comes to 
the farmer or the merchant, without ruth- 
less waste, or violent destruction. Neglect 
your plants and flowers and they die, more 
surely than if cut down at the roots. Your 
own right arm will suffer paralysis, if it 
remains long unused. 

In every kingdom of intellect this law 

62 



THE WAY THAT IS NARROW 

holds good. Neglect will discredit the 
grandest opportunities of school or college. 
No Musician, or Artist, or Poet, or Work- 
man achieves without effort. 

As citizens of the United States we are 
warned that we lose the very life and ex- 
pression of our citizenship if we neglect to 
register, and to vote. Thousands do neglect, 
and they are as certainly disfranchised as 
criminals in our jails. 

So men lose their citizenship in the king- 
dom of heaven, more often by neglect than 
by open rebellion, or by active wrong-doing. 
The Book of Life is made known, but men 
every day neglect, and — the soul is lost. 



SSf^ 



63 



XVIII. 

THE LAW OF LIBERTY 

"Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty 
and continueth therein, he being a doer of the 
work; this man shall be blessed in his deed." — 
James, 1 :25. 

"Shew, yourselves men: 'tis for liberty." — 11. 
Henry 6:4:2. 

Liberty is power in space. It is room to 
be — room to do. In one sense, it is "doing 
as I have a mind to." But liberty is not 
space only ; it is also power to be, and to do. 

In "As You Like It," Shakspeare has 
drawn a picture of one who had a mind to 
do as he liked: — 

"I must have liberty withal 
As large a charter as the wind 
To blow on whom I please." 

An Eagle boasted his liberty to do "as he 
had a mind to." He had a mind to come 
down from the mountains, and dwell in the 
woods. When called upon by his neighbor 
eagles to mount and share the greater lib- 
erties of the skies and shelter in the rocky 

64 



THE LAW OF LIBERTY 



palaces of mountain heights, this eagle 
screamed of his right to fly wheresoever he 
choose ; and so, after they had exhorted hiin 
in vain, his companions spread their great 
wings towards the peaks, and revelled in 
their native freedom, while he who boasted 
his liberty to ''do as he had a mind to," re- 
mained in the woods, and became the consort 
of the hawk and the crow and other meanier 
birds. By and by, he saw some of his own 
race sweeping through space, and thinking 
how grand they looked, he desired to join 
them. But when he essayed to fly upward, 
he found that his wings refused to carry him 
to the old heights and he could not reach 
a peak of the mountain. The dwarfed eagle 
remained a poor, defeated, crushed bird,^^ 
the companion of creatures of inferior orden. 

:^ * * ^ t- t^ t- 

The liberty of discipline is the great need 
of society. Lawlessness runs riot over jjis- 
tice; the mob revenges crime by committing 
worse crime. "License, they mean when 
they cry liberty," said John Milton. 

The saloon-power claims license as a right, 
and then breaks every clause in the contract. 
The Stage; the Sports, the Press, and Comr 
merce— all at times ride roughshod over la>/vf. 
Ordinances are treated with contempt and 

65 



THE LAW OF LIBERTY 

the glorious freedom of Sunday rest is pass- 
ing away. Children run riot over school 
authorities, and parental control is almost 
abrogated. 

Discipline, order, obedience, decorum, 
self-restraint, reverence for age, authority, 
and God, are disregarded. No matter our 
great space, no matter our freedom from 
checks or limitations, we are free only as 
the Truth makes us free. 

The price of liberty is to continue therein. 
He who would BE must DO. Even our 
physical pleasures are limited by the measure 
of our doing. The tennis-court in summer- 
time and the smooth ice of the broad river in 
winter, look temptingly inviting to all youth, 
but which of them can enjoy the liberties of 
tennis or skating until they first learn how ? 

Man without the liberty of law is not man. 
He has wings for infinite space. He may 
hold fellowship with the stars, walk among 
the planets, and talk with God. In all these 
things he is blessed if he looks into the "per- 
fect law and continueth therein." This is 
the restraint that qualifies liberty. 

Every man is free to remain down among 
the crows and to feast upon the carrion. 
But he who would possess himself of his 
privileges must rise to the heights of man- 



THE LAW OF LIBERTY 



hood; he will acquaint himself with men of 
large heart and noble aspirations; he will 
hold communion with God. 



''They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; 
they shall run and not be weary; and they shall 
walk and not faint." 



67 



XIX. 
THE VALUE OF TIME 

"We spend our years as a tale that is told." — Ps. 
90:9. 

"My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." — 
Job 7:16. 

"Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and 
fury — signifying nothing!" — Macb. 5:5. 

"Life is a shuttle." — Merry Wives 5:L 

'^Swifter than a weaver's shuttle!" our 
days pass away and are gone — irredeem- 
ably gone! "Redeeming the time'' is re- 
deeming the present hour. We cannot bank 
time and receive back, either principal, or 
interest ; we can only bank deeds, — life's do- 
ings ! 

"We believe in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not 
breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We 
should count time by heart-throbs." 

Many people who are very careful of 
money are prodigal of time. Yet time is 
more than money. It is opportunity, char- 
acter, life ! The poet Young says, "Time is 
eternity." At least it is our measurement 

68 



THE VALUE OF TIME 

of eternity. To live for a day is to live twen- 
ty-four hours of eternity.. 

"The time of life is short, 

To spend that shortness basely were too long." 

What is a day worth ? Its value is greater 
than that of the rarest gem, — more precious 
than the purest diamond, — worth more than 
a world of wealth. 

There is a story of a richly dressed lady in 
a great city who drew off her glove, and 
raked with her white hand, through the filth 
of the gutter to find a jewel she had dropped. 
The lost jewel may be recovered but no one 
ever recovered a lost hour, whether it were 
dropped in the gutter of city vices, lost in 
fashion's revelry, or wasted in idleness. A 
lost day is lost forever. 

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, 

Old time is still a-flying; 
And this same flower that smiles today 

Tomorrow will be dying." 



XX. 
CALVARY— GOLGOTHA 

'The place called Golgotha."— Matt. 27:33; Mark 
15:22; John 19:17. 

'The place which is called Calvary." — Luke 24: 
33. 

''Memorize another Golgotha." — Macbeth 1 :2. 

" * * * the field of Golgotha 
And dead men's skulls." — Richard 2, 4:1. 

It is significant that Shakspeare twice 
refers to Golgotha, using the word as a 
synonym for a scene of blood, a place of the 
most dreadful and awful memories. In 
Macbeth, a soldier tells the story of a direful 
battle which culminates in such bloodshed 
and carnage that it seemed — 

" * * * they meant to bathe in reeking wounds 
Or memorize another Golgotha." 

In Richard 11. the bishop of Carlisle 

says : — 

"Many a time hath banished Norfolk fought 
For Jesus Christ, in glorious Christian field 
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross, 
* * * and there at Venice, gave 
His body to that pleasant country's earth, 
And his pure soul to his captain Christ, 
Under whose colors he had fought so long.'' 

70 



CALVARY— GOLGOTHA 

The Bishop follows this with a protest 
against a traitorous plot against the king, 
and says : 

"Let me prophesy, * * ♦ 
Disorder, horror, fear and mutiny, 
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd 
The field of Golgotha, and dead men's skulls." 

Shakspeare speaks the popular concep- 
tion of Golgotha, as a place of skulls. Mat- 
thew explains it as ''a place of a skull" which 
we understand to be a rock, shaped some- 
what like a human skull. John says it "is 
called in the Hebrew, Golgotha,*' while Luke 
refers to it as "a place which is called Cal- 
vary." 

It is clear that, while the proper name of 
the place, according to the Hebrew, was Gol- 
gotha, Luke, who was the most historically 
and incidentally accurate of the gospel writ- 
ers, had good reason for stating that the 
place was also called by the Latin name, 
Calvary. 

Mark the different emotions which ema- 
nate from these two words. "Golgotha" 
presents a mental picture of overwhelming 
bloodguiltiness, with all the infamy and 
horror of the world-concerned crime enacted 
there. "Calvary" brings us the thought of 
Jesus as a redeemer. We never joy or sing 
of Golgotha, but our hymns are full of Cal- 

71 



CALVARY— GOLGOTHA 

vary and our gospel message, all the world 
over, is inspired by it. 

"Hark ! the voice of love and mercy 

Sounds aloud from Calvary. 
See! it rends the rocks asunder, 
Shakes the earth and veils the sky." 

Joseph Parker said: *'We have never 
seen Christ until we have seen him in Cal- 
vary!" Every preacher of the gospel finds 
his greatest inspiration in Calvary and the 
Cross. But no one ever thinks of preaching 
the gospel of Golgotha. 

Does the difference in these two words 
rest in the thought that Golgotha stands, in 
the minds of men, for the guilt and crime of 
man, while Calvary stands for the divine 
love and sacrifice of Jesus, in giving his life 
for man ? 

Let it be so! Let Golgotha proclaim my 
guilt and condemn my sins! Let Calvary 
speak in terms of divine love for my redemp- 
tion and my salvation ! 

There is a message of Goleotha and there 
is a message of Calvary. We delight in the 
latter; perhaps we have neglected the for- 
mer. 

"In those holy fields 
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet 
Which, fourteen hundred years ago were naiFd 
For our advantage on the bitter cross." 

--1. Hen. 4, 1:1. 

72 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

The Bible in Shakspeare 

Library Edition, 300 pages, $ 1 .50 Fleming H. Revell Company, Publishers 



The Outlook: 

"This excellently printed volume may well find a place 
on the shelf of every reader's library; for what reader 
has not heard of the so-called 'absence of religion in 
Shakspeare ?' *' 

Albany Journal (N. Y.): 

"If you read 'The Bible in Shakspeare' you will find it 
hard, if not altogether impossible, to escape the con- 
viction that Shakspeare was a Christian." 

St. Paul Dispatch: 

"Mr. Burgess has proved that Shakspeare was a be- 
liever in the Christian religion; that he knew, studied 
and used the Bible." 

Chicago Tribune: 

"Mr. Burgess has done an admirable service which can- 
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and English literature generally." 

Christian Guardian {Methodist Episcopal) : 

"For general and satisfactory use we have seen nothing 
to compare with Mr. Burgess* work." 

Lutheran Observer: 

"One is amazed, in going through these pages, to find 
how thoroughly Shakspeare's mind was saturated with 
Biblical truth and phraseology." 

The Interior (Presbyterian): 

"Calls for hearty commendation; certainly valuable, and 
will serve the purposes of the student better than any 
that has preceded it." 

Farm, Field and Fireside: 

"A treasury of information, and evinces vast research 
and study. No other work has covered this ground; 
and no library should fail to have a copy." 



For copies of the author's works, address 
REV. WM. BURGESS 4349 N. Hermitage Ave.. Chicago 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

The Religion of Ruskin 

Library Edition, 450 pages, $2.00 Fleming H. Revell Company, Publishers 

The Advance (Congregational) says: 

"One of the most interesting and instructive books pub- 
lished recently is 'The Religion of Ruskin; a Biograph- 
ical and Anthological Study'." The Advance follows 
this notice by devoting five columns of its regular issue 
of August 25, 1910, to a reprint of extracts from 
Chapter One of the book which consists of "The Life 
of Ruskin." 

Chicago Record-Herald: 

"Mr. Burgess has rendered a real service, especially to 
religious teachers of every sort, in bringing under one 
cover the whole mass of Ruskin's religious utterances, 
culled from the twenty-six volumes of his collected 
works, and here classified for easy access. Such a book, 
so admirably arranged, and withal so reverently re- 
sponsive to a pure and melodious voice, will do good 
in many ways, and is to be highly recommended." 

Chicago Tribune: 

"In its over four hundred ample and compactly printed 
pages there is first presented a life of Ruskin, followed 
by a very careful analysis and annotation of selections 
taken from all his works. The section headings are 
excellently well chosen. In its twenty-five pages of 
index immense industry has been shown." 

Evening Post: 

"This study which is at once biographical and antholog- 
ical, is distinctly worth while, containing as it does a 
sketch of a lofty and noble life, with selections from 
the works of Ruskin showing his perception of the 
religious element in art, in nature, in life and poetry, 
and his plea for the application of the religious spirit 
to political economy." 

Chicago Examiner: 

"A most comprehensive compendium of the sentiments 
of Ruskin and will be valued accordingly, and the com- 
piler seems justified in his belief that the reader will 
find by following the chronological order that Ruskin's 
mind was ever reverent." 



For copies of the author's works, address 
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